Google has released Android Studio 3.0, the latest version of its integrated development environment (IDE), with support for Google’s new Kotlin programming language. A major features included in this release is the Android Gridle 3.0 plugin which promises performance enhancements to the build process leading to “significant decrease in build times” for “developers of large multi-module projects,” as per Google.

Android Studio 3.0 was announced at Google I/O 2017 last May. It’s available for download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Google has also rolled out the first developer preview of Android 8.1 Oreo with improvements to Android Go, and a new Neural Networks API to “bring machine intelligence to Android” as Google puts it. Google already uses neural networks and neural networks in many of its products and services such as search, voice search, Google Maps, Google Home, and translation. Google really wants developers and the public at large to understand machine learning by playing with different apps that use machine learning.

To access Android 8.1 developer preview, you’ll need to enroll in the Android Beta Program. The preview release will work on various Pixel and Nexus devices as well as on the Android Emulator.

Other features in Android Studio 3.0 include support for some Java 8 code features, a tool called Image Asset Studio to help you generate your own app icons, ability to add new custom fonts apart from that to add Google fonts, and Android Profiler to help you debug your app for performance problems.

While Apple dominates the news cycle — and the latest news is about how great the iPhone X is — Android beats iOS so overwhelmingly in terms of number of users that it’s basically a no contest. The dominance of Android is well documented. In India, Android’s share is around 80% which is about the global average.

To reach the 2 billion+ user-base of monthly active devices on Android that Google reports, Android development makes sense and Android Studio is the best choice of IDE. For your mobile app development needs, we offer a comprehensive suite of solutions. Loginworks Softwares has core competencies in Android app development as well as Ionic hybrid mobile app development.